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Cree Summer
'Cree Summer Francks '''is a Canadian-American voice actress, actress, and singer, best known for being the original voice of Penny in the 1983 cartoon series ''Inspector Gadget, as well as voicing Elmyra Duff in Tiny Toon Adventures and its crossover Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain, Susie Carmichael in Rugrats and its spin-off All Grown Up!, Valerie Gray in Danny Phantom, Maxine "Max" Gibson in Batman Beyond, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, Numbuh 5 in Codename: Kids Next Door, Magma in the video game X-Men Legends, Yvonne and Gordon in Mrs. Munger's Class, Cleo in Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dulcy the Dragon in Season 2 of the SatAM version of Sonic the Hedgehog, Witch Haggar in Voltron: Legendary Defender, Mena in Bambi II, Specal Vocal Effects in Jumanji, Penelope in Barbie as Rapunzel and Susie Carmichael in The Rurgats Movie, Rugrats in Paris the Movie and Rugrats Go Wild. Early Life Summer was born in Los Angeles, California to Don Francks and Lili Red Eagle. Her father is of English descent and Her mother is of African-American and Cree First Nations descent. Career Summer's acting career began in 1983 when she was cast as Penny in the original version of Inspector Gadget. Her unique, throaty voice was instantly recognizable to viewers, as well as casting agents, who began frequently casting her in animated programs. Many of these were part of cult franchises, like The Care Bears Movie (1985) and Ewoks (1985, part of the Star Wars franchise). In 1988, Summer was cast as the freespirited Winifred "Freddie" Brooks in The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World.3 She remained a regular cast member of the show from 1988 through its end in 1993. During the run of A Different World, Summer continued working in voice acting. She was cast in the short-lived television series Sweet Justice in 1994 until its cancellation in 1995. Apart from guest appearances on other live-action television shows such as Living Single and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Summer's professional work since has been limited to voice acting. At the start of the third season of A Different World in 1988, the cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters episodes were expanded from their original half-hour format to an hour. The show was changed to be more youthful. Episodes had a lighter tone designed to be less serious and frightening. In these lighter episodes, Cree voiced the sweet and helpful Chilly Cooper, the neighborhood ice-cream woman and innocent love interest of Slimer. Summer voiced over 101 animated characters between 1983 and 2006. These have spanned video games, cartoon television series, animated films and commercials. Among her most famous roles was in Inspector Gadget (Season 1) as Penny (a role she reprised in the Robot Chicken episode "Adoption's an Option"), WB's Tiny Toon Adventures (1990) as Elmyra Duff (which she reprised for Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain) and Mary Melody, Aka Pella in WB's Histeria!, Susie Carmichael in Nickelodeon's Rugrats and its spin-off All Grown Up!, Cleo the Poodle in PBS Kids' Clifford the Big Red Dog, Miranda from Nickelodeon's As Told by Ginger, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, Dulcy the Dragon in Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess 'Kida' Kidagakash for the franchise of Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Valerie Gray in Nickelodeon's Danny Phantom, Numbuh 5 (Abigail Lincoln) and Cree Lincoln in Cartoon Network's Codename: Kids Next Door, Penelope in Barbie As Rapunzel, octogenarian villain Granny May on WordGirl, Tiff from Nickelodeon's My Life as a Teenage Robot, and Blackarachnia in Transformers: Animated. In the first season DVD commentary of Drawn Together, she stated that she was originally hired to do the voice of Meg Griffin on Fox's animated series Family Guy, but the producers recast the part as they felt having a black woman voice a white character would be racially insensitive.[citation needed] In December 2016, Summer reprised her role as Penny from Inspector Gadget in an episode of the web-series, Nostalgia Critic. Summer is a frequent co-star of Canadian-American actor Tara Strong; the two are childhood friends, both having grown up in Toronto, Ontario.4 Personal Life She had three children, Miles Summer-Pullen, Brave Littlewing and Hero Peregrine who were also actor and voice actors with her husband Angelo Pullen. Roles christy-care-bears-movie-2-84.2.jpg|Christy in Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation Discography Albums * Appeared on the Juno Award-nominated album I Lost My Pet Lizard (1979) * Appeared as Debbie in the Canadian Sesame Street album Big Bird & Oscar the Grouch: Camping in Canada (1981) * Womb Amnesia – (1993) (with her band Subject to Change) * Street Faërie – (1999) Singles * "Revelation Sunshine" Category:Voice Actresses Category:Canadian Actresses Category:American Actresses Category:Living people Category:Jumanji Actors Category:Bambi 2 Actors Category:Rugrats Actors